Japan In The Marshalls

Truth About “Fortifications” Story

VERY little information is available nowadays about conditions in the Marshall and Caroline Islands. Prior to 1914 these groups were in close trading contact tenth Australia, but after the war they were taken over by Japan under Mandate from the League of Nations.

Since then, reports have been mostly to the effect that the Islands are being for tified by Japan and maintained as a close preserve for Japan’s shipping and trading interests.

The following extracts from a letter written in November, 1933, by a well known resident of the Central Pacific, have con siderable interest: THERE are two routes from Japan to the Marshalls, the Eastern and the Western traversed alternately, month about, by the N.T.K. steamers. By the Eastern route Saipan is the first point of call, and by the Western, Paloa. The re maining islands called at on the outward or homeward run, as the case may be, are the same by either route. I went to Japan by the Western route, and returned by the Eastern.

Saipan is an elevated island of coral formation, doubtless pushed up by some convulsion of the Pacific bed in bygone ages. Opposite, about fifteen or twenty miles distant, is another island of similar formation. Extensive areas of land on these Islands, which were formerly but little or even quite uncultivated have been converted into profitable sugar-cane and banana plantations by the Japanese. Copra really appears to be of a secondary con sideration there nowadays. I understand that the Japanese population is over 20,000.

I did not go ashore at Saipan, but was, of course, free to do so.

Now for a few remarks concerning Palao, the seat of Government in the Japanese South Sea Mandates, which I visited on the way to Japan. It is a pre cipitous, hilly island, apparently of coral formation like Saipan, but very different in appearance. Areas of land suitable for the cultivation of sugar-cane, etc., do not ap pear to be extensive. There is a small land-locked harbour adjacent to the town ship, but rather too small to be of much account. The main road of the little town ship is very well kept, and in the residen tial section is bordered with flowering shrubs, back of which are neat, substantial dwellings, of a type suitable for the tropics.

The Government offices are fine, large and airy, all that could be desired for such a place. The township is provided with many of the conveniences of modern civili sation, such as electric light, radio, ice making plant, motor cars, etc. —not many motor cars, to be sure, but some. To the writer, the whole aspect of the place was charming.

Should Germans, who formerly resided in this section of the South Sea Islands, re-visit Palao, or for that matter any of the principal islands in the Marshalls or Carolines, I think that they would be greatly surprised at the progress made since that fateful 1914; but at the same time I also think racial prejudice and wounded self-esteem would be apt to pre vent all but a few giving the present re gime due credit for the same.

Along what lines has there been pro

gress? Well, in educational facilities, hos pital treatment, road-making, harbour im provements, town improvements, plantation developments, the encouragement of native arts, etc. No unprejudiced person, with knowledge of past and present conditions in these Mandates, can truthfully deny that considerable progress, such as I have stated, has been made under the present regime, and that the Islanders have bene fited thereby materially. Incidentally, Japanese may have benefited also, but not at the cost of the Islanders.

Now, why do I relate all this? I will tell you. Regardless of likes or dislikes, now as ever, I believe that fair play is bonnie play; and that attitude appears to be sadly lacking in some quarters nowa days. I have before me an article entitled “Manchuria, Where East Meets West,”

which appeared in “McCall’s” early this year. The following - assertion occurs in the article: “Remember this: The Japs, have had a Mandate over six hundred Pacific Islands since the war. The Man date provides that they must not fortify the islands. But everybody knows that they have built naval bases at all the im portant points.”

Now, is this assertion concerning Japanese activities in the Islands true? It is not. Having visited all the important points recently, as already stated in this letter, I can positively assert that it is false.

Again, in a recent number of the “New Outlook,” a well known American maga zine, a similar statement occurs in an article entitled “Our Next War For Peace,” if I remember correctly. The statement is very similar to the one already quoted, but with a little addition. It is asserted that recently an American, with some un explained official connection, was slain at some island somewhere in the Carolines, and that the Japanese authorities blamed bandits for the crime.

I can say without any hesitation that I believe this to be a fabrication. The Islanders are great gossipers, and had any

thing of the sort occurred, I would most certainly have heard something about it.

And on the face of it, it does not bear the impress of truth. Consider it —an un named man, on an unnamed island, slain by non-existent South Sea ban dits! Why not give the names, if true? And, if false, why not supply a fictitious name for the imaginary person slain by the non-existent bandits? Be cause it would enable the authorities, or any local resident, to disprove the whole story too easily.

Now you may begin to think that I am

strongly pro-Japanese. Well, I am not, in the general sense of the expression. That is, if bias is implied. I simply believe in truth and justice for anyone, regardless of nationality, and I do detest false and mali cious statements concerning friend or foe.

Numerous statements similar to those referred to would seem to indicate that pro paganda is at work, and for no good pur pose. When one reads articles reflecting upon Japanese activities in Manchuria, and in the course of such sees some reference, which one knows to be absolutely untrue, concerning Japanese doings in the South Sea Mandates, one is apt to doubt the veracity of all such articles. One does not wonder so much at Pontius Pilate asking long ago, “What is truth?”

Although it may not exactly coincide with what you may have heard about the Mandates over a decade ago, I have writ ten the truth in this letter. Believe me, no great Powers can hope to justly deprive Japan of the Mandates on the ground if inefficiency, mismanagement, or a disre gard of the terms of the Mandates.